YORK artist Patrick Smith is excited to be exhibiting his work again in his home city.

The contemporary abstract painter and art tutor will be showing his new paintings and monoprints at the White Room Gallery, Priestley’s No.36, Bootham, from Wednesday to October 4.

Patrick's work is in many private and public collections in this country and abroad and his artistic practice concentrates on ideas associated with the edge and devices in composition and form.

Using American abstract expressionism, and British modernism of the 1950s as a point of departure, Patrick's influences can be ascribed to Robert Motherwell, Peter Lanyon and the sculpture and prints of Eduardo Chillida.

Patrick studied painting and printmaking at Leeds Metropolitan University, where he was awarded the William Tier Memorial Award for Landscape and an Erasmus Scholarship to train at the Utrecht School of the Arts in Holland.

On his return to York, he taught for many years on further and higher education courses, becoming an associate lecturer at York College.

Public exposure of his work began in 1994 with many group and solo shows, leading to media interviews in print and on radio and television and to great acclaim at the Highgate Contemporary Summer Show in London.

Patrick has now set up a rural studio to concentrate on painting full time and with the help of his wife, Nicky, he runs private classes in painting, printmaking and drawing.

The White Room Gallery is open on Mondays from 11am to 5.30pm and Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm.